Phased-array antenna architecture includes a number of individual, active antenna elements, associated control electronics, a beam forming network including phase shifters and power combiners, and a complex assembly. The cost of such a phased array architecture may be dominated by the number of individual elements.
A tunable impedance surface for steering and/or focusing a radio frequency beam is described in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,483,480, 6,552,696 and 6,538,621 to Sievenpiper et al.